A Winning Superbowl Menu

by Jamie Geller

Jamie Geller proves that a busy person does not have to spend hours in the kitchen to create a nourishing, fast, delicious, eye appealing meal. In fact, she makes no bones about not being able to even cook when she was a newlywed. This enterprising, energetic and talented woman even wrote a bestselling cookbook (published in 2007) based on that premise –Quick & Kosher - Recipes From The Bride Who Knew Nothing.

Obviously, this "bride" now knows something about food and cooking. She has written a second book in the Quick and Kosher series, Quick & Kosher: Meals in Minutes, is Chief Foodie Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for the online kosher supermarket Kosher.com, writes a daily blog, gives cooking demos around the USA and is featured in print, on radio and TV.

KosherEye caught up with Jamie and enjoyed an interesting (and fun) conversation with her. After completing the first cookbook, which took two and a half years and, in her own words, she had "no clue when writing the book.", she told herself "she would never do it again!" Short lived promise – but experience is a good teacher. The current cookbook took 10 months to complete and she already had a team in place for testing and recipe development.

Jamie credits Susie Fishbein, best–selling author of the Kosher by Design cookbook series, for being the first modern kosher cookbook pioneer and her mentor. "Susie is high–end, elegant kosher cooking. I am more Rachael Ray and aspire to cook like her – fast, tasty food."

We asked about her favorite kitchen tools and her answer surprised us. "I love tongs; they are like an extension of my arm. They are total low maintenance and I have many styles. The food processor took me a long time to come to love; in the end, it saves a lot of time."

Jamie loves to entertain but never really loved to cook. She considers herself "the only cookbook author to free people from the kitchen" and her recipes reflect the use of ready–made items and few (if any) complicated steps.

Quick & Kosher: Meals in Minutes features 217 new, triple tested recipes. Several of them are "quick" interpretations of the more complicated versions. Beautiful, full color photographs accompany many of the recipes – an opportunity to feast with the eyes. The book is organized into three sections based on total time, from Prep to Cook to Serve: 20 Minute Meals, 40 Minute Meals and 60 Minutes Meals.

Also included in Quick & Kosher: Meals in Minutes are recommendations for cheese, wine and kosher products. The book is perfect for the busy person who has no time to spend in the kitchen but appreciates and wants to serve good food. It is a KosherEye "gift yourself, gift others" selection.

And what is a little know fact about this "kosher Rachael Ray"?

"I was a professionally trained dancer and performed before live audiences at age 5. I was the only child star in an all adult dance troop. By age 12, I taught dance - Hip Hop, Jazz and Tap. And, up until three years ago, competed and won medals and awards and taught dance for teens and adults." Now why aren't we surprised by this revelation!

Jamie has graciously created a Super Bowl Menu for our KosherEye readers. The recipes are from Quick & Kosher - Meals in Minutes, From The Bride Who Knew Nothing and her online Kosher.com blog.

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